A bold forecast from the Royal Shakespeare Company: with a workforce of 835, the company is poised to trim roughly 11 percent of its staff, and insiders say it intends to terminate all of its staff musicians. The move comes as the RSC contends with a £5 million deficit tied to reductions in Arts Council funding.
Traditionally, December has been a time when cultural organizations announce redundancies, and the RSC’s situation appears to fit that pattern. At this stage, the Musicians Union is not reported to be involved in the process.
Caption: Hamlet as staged by the RSC.
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John Borstlap weighs in with a provocative angle: he suggests that the funds might be diverted toward so-called woke initiatives, arguing Shakespeare’s works epitomize an elitist, white supremacist culture and a feudal system built on oppression and colonization. He adds that Shakespeare’s canon also includes love poems to young men, which he views as a reminder of the poet’s humanity beyond the stage.
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